“Who’s Steve Barclay?” I hear you cry.

And with good reason. I had absolutely no idea until he was named as Brexit Secretary.

It turns out he’s a career Tory politician who joined that party after leaving university in 1994.

He failed to gain Parliamentary seats from other parties twice – in 1997 and 2001, and it is worth noting that the North Cambridgeshire seat he currently occupies is habitually Conservative – he took it over from Malcolm Moss in May 2010.

He also took over as organiser of the Carlton Political Dinner, which raises money for the Conservative Party’s target seats, in 2007. As an MP, he is noteworthy for having been completely insignificant; he was named by ConservativeHome as one of a minority of loyal Conservative backbench MPs not to have voted against the government in any significant rebellions.

Mr Barclay had been a minister of state for health since January this year, a position in which nobody noticed him at all.

It has been reported that he will not be allowed to carry out any Brexit negotiations, meaning the role of Brexit Secretary now exists in name alone.

So it is unsurprising that Owen Jones should have commented on his appointment as follows:

The hollow nature of his appointment attracted comparison with former role-holders David Davis and Dominic Raab:

Others have picked up on the silliness of the situation:

He hasn’t resigned. There’s no reason for him to do so.

He doesn’t have a job description.

But then, why should he? He is a nobody.

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